A Chronology of State Medicine, Public Health, Welfare and Related ...

1861 Cont - 1862
1861 cont A Select Committee received considerable criticism of the role of relieving
officers as intermediaries in the obtaining of medical attendance. See 1864.
Publication for the Workhouse Visiting Society of "A Plea for the Destitute Incurable"
by Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904). The plea was that the chronic sick should be separated
from other inmates of the workhouses and be given extra comforts. There were about 80,000
people in the category of "destitute incurable" in the institutions. A petition to the House of
Commons included signatures from leading physicians and surgeons of London hospitals
who agreed that such people should not be kept for more than a brief period in any hospital
established for the cure of the sick. See 1866.
Nurses were appointed for the first time to the staff of a Poor Law hospital (Liverpool)
and Agnes Jones (1832-68) was appointed the first superintendent.
1862 Lunacy Acts Amendment Act (25&26 Vict., c.111) set out conditions and regulations
for the establishment, management and inspection of county asylums. See 1877.
Lunacy in Scotland Act (25&26 Vict., c.54) regulated the care and treatment of
lunatics, and the provision and maintenance of lunatic asylums in Scotland. See 1913.
Lunacy Regulation Act (25&26 Vict., c.86) amended the 1853 act in respect of the
proof of insanity and disposal of the property of lunatics.
Police (Scotland) Act (25&26 Vict., c.101), a major act of 449 clauses, regulated the
policing of the towns and populous places in Scotland; and provided for the lighting,
cleansing, paving, draining and supply of wholesome water, and for promoting the public
health. See 1867.
House of Lords Select Committee on Injury from Noxious Vapours called for an
inspectorate free from local control. See Alkali Act 1863.
Manchester and Salford Ladies Health Society appointed the first "health visitors",
being women of the working class, to visit the poorer people and teach them the rules of
health and child care. See 1891.
Henry Littlejohn (1828-1914, later Sir, lecturer in medical jurisprudence and police
surgeon in Edinburgh) was appointed the first medical officer of health in Edinburgh with the
support of the presidents of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons.
John Simon (see 1848) in his fourth annual report to the Privy Council drew attention
to the ill effects of much factory work and concluded that "to be able to redress that wrong is
perhaps among the greatest opportunities for good which human institutions can afford".
St Thomas' Hospital moved from London Bridge to Surrey Gardens, opposite the
Houses of Parliament.
Training for midwives, initiated by Florence Nightingale (see 1854), started at King's
College Hospital, London. This was abandoned in 1868 following an epidemic of puerperal
sepsis. See 1869.
George Peabody (1795-1869, merchant and banker, born in USA) set up the Peabody
Trust to provide tenements for workers and their families in London. See 1865.
The Senate of London University decided by a single majority vote that its powers to
confer degrees on "all classes and denominations ... without any distinction whatsoever" did
not extend to females. Consequently Elizabeth Garrett (1836-1917) was debarred from
entering the University's examinations. See 1865 and 1878.
The rapid growth in railways since 1840 had linked all the main cities and
revolutionised passenger and freight transport. London to Edinburgh by rail now took 10½
hours; this was reduced to 8½ in 1888.